I live in a land called Mid-America. Here, we want less government involvement in our lives. And we're mostly non-elite, working middle-class. "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Politics first, America last

Thanks to three U.S. Senators (from the Democrat party), China will be developing Iraqi oil instead of U.S. or Western oil companies. The same senators and party that keep saying we shouldn't be messing with other nation's internal affairs have been doing just that: meddling in a big way, and all because of politics.

Reported by Frederick Kagan in Weekly Standard, as well as the New York Observer, among others, is the fact that John Kerry, Chuck Shumer, and Claire McCaskill, through their involvement with Iraqi politics, caused the Iraqi government to reject any bids by U.S. oil companies. Hence, Iraq went with China, which turned out to be less politicalized.

Here's what our three nitwits in the Senate said:

“It’s bad enough that we have no-bid contracts being awarded for work in Iraq. It’s bad enough that the big oil companies continue to receive government handouts while they post record breaking profits. But now the most profitable companies in the universe – America’s biggest oil companies – stand to reap the rewards of this no-bid contract on top of it all,” McCaskill said. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect these dots – big oil is running Washington and now they’re running Baghdad. There is no reason under the sun not to halt these agreements until we get revenue sharing in place,” McCaskill said.

However, the Observer put it in perspective:

It is uncommon for oil companies to receive no-bid contracts of this type. It is especially unusual in this case since more than 40 companies were seeking the servicing deal that Iraq is prepared to give to the four companies. Iraq’s central government has defended the award process, saying Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP have provided free advice and support over the past two years, enabling the companies and the government to build a close relationship.

Now, instead of Iraqi oil profits flowing to American and western companies, they go to Chinese. Instead of us getting back some of the $500 billion plus we've spent rebuilding Iraq, we, the American taxpayer, get stuck with the bill. As usual.

The Democrats. Is this the party you want in power? The party that has essentially taxed us to death over the last 70 years? And again, intefering when they should not.

Another point I want to make is the term "government handout" used by our three senators. It seems the Dems, anytime you can save money on taxes (which is what they are talking about, because the oil companies get tax savings for development) it's a handout. But in reality, it's that the oil companies get to keep more of their profits.

WAKE UP, AMERICANS. For the 49 percent of you out there currently thinking of Obama and his party, you will get what you wish for. More government. More inteference in your lives. More taxes. More of the same ol shit that has been handed out from Washington since FDR took power.